San Cristobal, another great city in Mexico that sits in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains. The city itself has a bustling zocalo, quite a few tourists but are amongst plenty of local Mayans strolling the streets with extremely heavy loads doing their best to sell their collections of scarfs, pens, jewelry, hair clips, string bracelets, etc. The massive loads these women carry are incredible. A kid secured to their back with long, non-stretchy cloth, a foot deep stack of carpets on one arm, purses dangling from the other and an occasional black plastic bag or two hanging from their fingers. When they aren't selling their goods, they are often found sitting on the benches in the center sewing beautiful and intricate pieces ranging from scarves to three year tapestry projects. The Mayan people have a very different look than what we have seen thus far. Rounder faces, flatter noses, long, straight hair for the women and very short. We feel like giants towering over most of the cities occupants. It is quite a trip to say the least.
The outdoor market is fairly big, covering a few blocks and one can purchase almost anything. Hoses, tires, bags full of batteries, fruit, chickens, baby chicks, sandals, etc. We often follow the motto that we only buy things we can eat, otherwise we have to carry it. Always on the hunt for food, we found the local stalls serving only tacos but with 6 or 7 filling options. 4 tacos a piece, one of everything, and 40 pesos later, we were full and happy. The hostal close to the zocalo called Hostalito that we stayed at was fantastic. The owner is on warmshowers.com and offers cycle tourers a free night and a discounted rate there after. The hostal has a warm feel, couches and a dining room table along with a full kitchen. Smoothies everyday that we shared with the woman and daughter who clean the place and we even cooked dinner for a New Zealand couple that we spent most of our time with in San Cristobal. The best part of travelling is the people we meet along the way.
Leaving San Cristobal, we carried through the mountains toward Palenque, the home to a famous Mayan ruin that sits in the jungle. Two days of riding, rolling hills that never hold true to the upcoming road advice we seem to often get, "Oh, the ride is easy. It's all downhill." Unless the person has specifically ridden that road on a bicycle, I no longer believe such words. Although we definitely had some long climbs, it is a stunning ride that carried us over twisty roads, plush jungle and through small villages. The mountains of Chiapas have been the most beautiful yet in Mexico for cycling. The children in these towns often play close to the road, roaming freely at young ages. Approaching slowly on bicycles loaded with gear, the kids would take one glance at us before running to the closest structure before peaking around the corner to eye us and giggle as we rode by. I'm not sure if they were scared of both of us or just Ryan.
Riding 100k, we stopped in the town of Ocosingo. No tourists here. We found a cheap room and were off to the center to enjoy food and people watch. Early to bed, early to rise. 120k ahead of us but this was actually mostly downhill. After a stiff climb to get out of the valley, we had a great descent, possibly my favorite yet in Mexico because of the few topes (speed bumps marking a village and giving the locals a chance to sell fruit, snacks and beverages to the passing cars and buses) and a fairly smooth road. I felt like we were in the heart of the jungle at this point. Birds serenading us as we rode, green all around and leaves the size of shoe boxes.
Topes and the locals selling fruit and snacks. One word, wow. At one point while we were descending, moving at a fairly good clip, a line of cars was stopped coming from the other direction. Lo and behold, a woman and her two children had rigged a rope with small flags held tight across the road to force cars to stop and potentially purchase their snacks. Seriously? This is definitely something dangerous. Approaching quickly, Ryan yelled loudly and the woman dropped the rope just in time to not catch our tires. This was a good introductory for the miles ahead as we saw this more than a few times.
Making headway, we experience our first true flat tire. 23 months on the bikes and only our second set of tires before a stainless steel spike with a flat head somehow made it's way into my tire. After a quick patch and some choice words for the biting red ants swarming our legs we were back on our way to Palenque.
The outdoor market is fairly big, covering a few blocks and one can purchase almost anything. Hoses, tires, bags full of batteries, fruit, chickens, baby chicks, sandals, etc. We often follow the motto that we only buy things we can eat, otherwise we have to carry it. Always on the hunt for food, we found the local stalls serving only tacos but with 6 or 7 filling options. 4 tacos a piece, one of everything, and 40 pesos later, we were full and happy. The hostal close to the zocalo called Hostalito that we stayed at was fantastic. The owner is on warmshowers.com and offers cycle tourers a free night and a discounted rate there after. The hostal has a warm feel, couches and a dining room table along with a full kitchen. Smoothies everyday that we shared with the woman and daughter who clean the place and we even cooked dinner for a New Zealand couple that we spent most of our time with in San Cristobal. The best part of travelling is the people we meet along the way.
Leaving San Cristobal, we carried through the mountains toward Palenque, the home to a famous Mayan ruin that sits in the jungle. Two days of riding, rolling hills that never hold true to the upcoming road advice we seem to often get, "Oh, the ride is easy. It's all downhill." Unless the person has specifically ridden that road on a bicycle, I no longer believe such words. Although we definitely had some long climbs, it is a stunning ride that carried us over twisty roads, plush jungle and through small villages. The mountains of Chiapas have been the most beautiful yet in Mexico for cycling. The children in these towns often play close to the road, roaming freely at young ages. Approaching slowly on bicycles loaded with gear, the kids would take one glance at us before running to the closest structure before peaking around the corner to eye us and giggle as we rode by. I'm not sure if they were scared of both of us or just Ryan.
Riding 100k, we stopped in the town of Ocosingo. No tourists here. We found a cheap room and were off to the center to enjoy food and people watch. Early to bed, early to rise. 120k ahead of us but this was actually mostly downhill. After a stiff climb to get out of the valley, we had a great descent, possibly my favorite yet in Mexico because of the few topes (speed bumps marking a village and giving the locals a chance to sell fruit, snacks and beverages to the passing cars and buses) and a fairly smooth road. I felt like we were in the heart of the jungle at this point. Birds serenading us as we rode, green all around and leaves the size of shoe boxes.
Topes and the locals selling fruit and snacks. One word, wow. At one point while we were descending, moving at a fairly good clip, a line of cars was stopped coming from the other direction. Lo and behold, a woman and her two children had rigged a rope with small flags held tight across the road to force cars to stop and potentially purchase their snacks. Seriously? This is definitely something dangerous. Approaching quickly, Ryan yelled loudly and the woman dropped the rope just in time to not catch our tires. This was a good introductory for the miles ahead as we saw this more than a few times.
Making headway, we experience our first true flat tire. 23 months on the bikes and only our second set of tires before a stainless steel spike with a flat head somehow made it's way into my tire. After a quick patch and some choice words for the biting red ants swarming our legs we were back on our way to Palenque.
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